Conventionally, terminal connectors are used which are fabricated so that a conductor exposed by stripping an end of a multicore or multiconductor flat cable can be inserted thereinto so as to establish electrical communication between the cable (and thus the components to which the cable is attached) and a substrate member (for example, a printed circuit board or the like).
One conventional terminal connector assembly 10 is shown in cross-section in accompanying FIG. 1. As can be seen, a terminal connector 12 is housed within terminal block 14. Terminal connector 12 includes a contact point 16 which is biased into electrical contact with the exposed end 18 of multiconductor cable 20. The terminal connector 12 at its end opposite to contact point 16 passes through housing 14 via aperture 22 and is soldered at solder connection 24 to substrate 26. Since the terminal connector 12 passes through the housing 14, it is thus susceptible of being contaminated with fluxing agents typically used during soldering of connector terminal 12 to the substrate 26. That is, fluxing agents may gain entry into cavity 28 of housing 14 via a clearance between the terminal connector 12 and aperture 22 thereby resulting in poor electrical contact when the fluxing agent reaches the contact point 16. Penetration of the fluxing agent into housing 2 thus represents a potential fatal defect to the conventional connector assembly 10 shown in FIG. 1 since there is only a single contact point 16 to establish electrical contact with exposed end 18 of multiconductor cable 20.
Moreover, the cable 20 is mechanically held via bias spring pressure at the contact point 16 of terminal connector 12 so that the cable 20 is readily removed from the connector assembly 10 when the spring pressure of terminal connector 12 is decreased thereby resulting in poor electrical contact witn exposed end 18 at contact point 16. Thus, should the connector assembly 10 of FIG. 1 be reduced in size, the connector terminal 12 is also inevitably reduced in size thereby necessarily decreasing the spring force exerted by terminal connector 12 at contact point 16. This mitigates against reduced terminal connector sizes since disconnection of the multiconductor cable could occur.
One object of the present invention therefore is to provide a terminal connector in an assembly whose configuration affords sufficient mechanical holding strength under lower spring pressures which thereby promotes size reduction of the overall connector assembly without jeopardizing its reliability for establishing electrical contact with the exposed ends of the multiconductor cable. Another object of the invention is to provide a small-sized, compact and highly reliable connector assembly which eliminates the aperture necessary in conventional connector assemblies so as to prevent the potential of fluxing agents being introduced within the terminal block thereby promoting reliable electrical contact between the terminal connector and the exposed ends of the multiconductor cable.
These objects are achieved, generally, by a terminal connector assembly which removably receives end portions of the multiconductor cable to thereby establish electrical communication between the cable and the substrate member (for example, a printed circuit board) by providing a terminal block which defines an array of interior elongate cavities each having an open upper end. Each cavity includes a generally U-shaped terminal member having a pair of opposing spaced-apart side arms and a bridge portion integrally connecting the pair of side arms such that the side arms extend upwardly to the open upper end of the terminal block to permit a respective one of the cable end portions to be insertably received therebetween. The pair of arms also integrally includes an opposing pair of inwardly protruding contact portions which establish therebetween an entranceway of reduced cross-sectional dimension. The pair of contact portions thus ensure sufficient electrical contact between the U-shaped terminal connector and the inserted end of the multiconductor cable such that electrical contact therebetween is ensured to thus promote increased reliability of the terminal connector.
Preferably, the connector assembly of the present invention includes a housing cover having plural apertures formed in registry with the array of terminal cavities and the means for permitting resilient displacement of at least one section of each aperture relative to another section thereof. In such a manner, the one section is resiliently displaceable between gripping and release positions so as to respectively grip the multiconductor cable (thereby retaining the end portions in electrical contact with the contact portions of the U-shaped terminals) and permitting the end portions of the multiconductor cable to be removed therefrom.
The above as well as other objects and advantages of this invention will be better understood after careful consideration is given to the detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof which follows.